1. Field of The Invention
The present invention is related to providing an air-conditioner, particularly to providing the cooling/warming control system for an air-conditioner, with a means for automatically controlling its cooling/warming capacity to accommodate the load to be air-conditioned.
2. Prior Art
Generally, an air-conditioner having a cooling/warming function for use in the home or similar use commonly provides a refrigerating cycle by means of a compressor 31, a condenser 32, a high pressure valve 33, a capillary tube 34 and an evaporator 35 connected in sequence to one another, to which FIG. 1 refers. The air-conditioner performs the cooling or warming operation by directing the flow of refrigerant in either a forward or reverse direction. Thus, the area to be cooled or heated must be within the range of the air conditioner's capacity.
For example, in the case of cooling a room, the smaller the room area, the less output from the air-conditioner is required as the room temperature is reached and maintained at the predetermined cooling condition. The air-conditioner cooling load is thus reduced in compliance with the smaller room area requirement. On the other hand, the cooling load increases when the room area is relatively larger.
Similarly, an air-conditioner used for warming is subject to the same phenomena as during the cooling operation, so that the warming load is predetermined according to the corresponding magnitude of the bigger room area.
Nevertheless, the air-conditioner performs the room cooling/ warming function in a manner Whereby a temperature sensor detects the room temperature without evaluating the room area and then calculates the difference between the detected actual room temperature and the temperature setting of the room to be air-conditioned. A microcomputer constituting the control portion of the air-conditioner compares the current room temperature with the setting temperature and continuously evaluates the temperatures in order to minimize the difference between the two. Thus, when the current room temperature is equal to the setting temperature, the load operation of the air conditioner is temporarily halted. Thereafter, when actual room temperature deviates from the setting, the cooling operation is activated. A larger difference causes the air-conditioner to be operated at a maximum level, whereas a gradual reduction in the difference means the switching into a moderate-level operation.
The warming operation of the air-conditioner is similar to the cooling operation. When the air-conditioner is switched into the warming mode in response to the desired room temperature setting, the microcomputer compares the current room temperature with the setting temperature and continues to evaluate the deviation in order to control the room warming function. For example, if the current room temperature is much higher than the setting temperature, or the temperature deviation between the two is very large, the air-conditioner exerts its maximum capacity to perform the necessary operation, whereas when the deviation is reduced, the operation mode is gradually reduced.
The conventional air-conditioner has disadvantages in that the cooling/warming efficiency is rather low, and the power consumption is relatively higher because the operation control uses a temperature sensor. The cooling/warming control of the air-conditioner is performed in response to the room temperature as sensed by a temperature sensor, regardless of the size of the room area. This causes the air-conditioner to be operated at the maximum mode without evaluating the magnitude of the cooling/warming load, causing the initial operating power consumption to be very high. The larger cooling/warming load causes the operating cycles to be extremely variable, and thus an efficient cooling/warming operation cannot be expected.
In order to resolve these problems in the prior art, the main object of the present invention is to provide a system for calculation of the cooling/warming load and automatically controlling the operation of the air-conditioner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system which includes at least one ultra-sonic sensor which enables the sensors to measure the corresponding room dimensions in order to compute the size of the area to be air-conditioned and to automatically control the operation of the air-conditioner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for enabling at least two sensors to measure the corresponding room dimensions, computing the size of the area to be air-conditioned and subsequently computing the room volume, and for automatically controlling the operation of an air-conditioner.